DougK Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 that looks freaking awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 Very nice indeed! Your wife's inlay looks great too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarter Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 That turned out great, nice job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boggs Posted October 30, 2007 Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 Beautiful work! Congratulations!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted November 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 (edited) Thank you guys for the comments and congratulations. This project is really making me proud. Some more detailed work has been done during the week: The frets have been leveled, recrowned and mirror polished. Not only the 12th fret was high, but it was the worse. The relief has been set, action tweaked and intonation adjusted. The action adjustment range is a tad marginal. With the bridge all the way down the action is just a bit below what I normally use. I might try to route a shallow (about 2mm) recess where the lower collars of the bridge posts touch the body. The inserts are a healthy couple of mm into the top already. This small recess will give me a little more range and peace of mind. The nut (graphtech) was shaped and cut, still need to glue it in place. I shaped it Gibson style, I prefer the strings to just sit on the nut instead of running inside a deep channel like on the PRS. The electronics have been completely wired. The neck and mid pickups are Gibson P90s (the mid is RW/RP), and the bridge is a custom wound hot P90 made by LP Forum member Zhangliqun (highly recommended). The switching is fairly standard, 6-way rotary, volume, tone. The variation of voices is amazing. From the classic LP Special P90-on-mahogany sound to fat quacky strat-type sounds. I always wondered what P90s in a Strat wiring would sound like, now I'm impressed. The tuners I'm far less impressed with. These are fullsize locking rotomatics. The locking idea and implementation is good, really easy to string up, but the posts are too tall (breaking angle on the nut suffers and overall it looks disproportioned). With all the tuning/detuning involved in a setup I had to replace the high E (twice), the D and the A strings !! The tuners have a tendency to break the strings at the post. And they are too damn heavy, even with the wooden buttons. In my guitar the body isn't exactly feather light, and it still balances very well, but I doubt I'll use these tuners again. I might even replace them for the more-vintage looking (and quite lighter) Deluxe/tulip types. Then there's the playability. The neck feels just a tad too substantial. Front to back the depth is in line with a LP59, and just a tad thicker than a PRS wide-fat. I may try to shave it a little, specially on the shoulders. That should improve the feel just that little bit. But other than that (I do like fat necks anyway) the relief is close to none, action is perfect for me and there's no string buzz anywhere. Notes ring loud and clear (and they do ring like a bell !!), no dead spots anywhere and even step-and-a-half bendings ring perfectly without any note choking. It really plays like a dream and rings like a piano. Summarizing: I have the fortune of owning a few really good professional grade electric guitars. This one I made is easily one of the best playing and sounding among them all. Three months ago I was wondering if I could build at least a decent guitar body at home, now I'm playing this amazing instrument that I made all by myself. I'm so happy and proud that I had to share my feelings and impressions with the people of this Forum who greatly helped this dream become a reality. Inlay Body Inlay 12th fret Inlay TRC Now I just need to apply a discreet finish and my 1st build will be a complete success. (BTW: The commissioned neck was a fortunate failure. The guys that were going to build it said they would have it in 8 weeks when they quoted me. After 8 weeks they said they needed at least 4 more. At that point they said they still needed "a few more weeks"... I paid them a visit. They hadn't even started !!! I cancelled the order. I don't need it anymore, now I know I can make my own necks. ) Edited November 3, 2007 by Blackdog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyManAndy Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Truly incredible build! I just love it! Great job, you'd never know it was your first just by looking at the guitar. I only hope mine turns out as nice. What kind of a finish are you going for? CMA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 That is a quality build, you can see everything nothing hidden by paint, and I do prefer natural finishes. You should enter it for Guitar of the month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougK Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 absolutely fantastic Good motivation for me to start making forward progress on mine again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Truly excellent work! Bravo! ...and since I know for a fact you've got at least two other neck blanks waiting in the wings, I'll be (impatiently) waiting for the next few projects to show up. Wish I had the time to actually really get stuff done, though, because I seem to be permanently stalled right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastertone007 Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 I love a well build PRS. I am building a hollow body PRS Custom 22. Jaycee is right, you should enter guitar of the month. Its a good feeling to know that you can make your own neck. Its a even better feeling to know you can make your own fretboard with your own scale! I am build a fretboard with 25.25 Scale... I love the wood you have used... Maybe a danish oil finnish? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Wow, I really gotta hand it to you... I want one I'm glad you're so pumped about your guitar! I know the feeling, I just finished fretting my first neck, and I took a step back to look at the whole thing... I was pleased. Did you already state what method you used for the finish, or did I miss it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTU 7's. Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Hey man, awesome guitar you have there! Your work it's really really clean, and your wife made a nice work on that inlay. Frank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted November 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2007 (edited) Thanks a lot for the compliments !! I think I'm blushing... ...and since I know for a fact you've got at least two other neck blanks waiting in the wings, I'll be (impatiently) waiting for the next few projects to show up. The next two (why settle for just one ??) are actually pretty well defined already. The plan is to build them more or less concurrently: #2: Doublecut LP Special style, deep-carved flamed maple top on honduras mahogany (the "original" body blank). Indian RW neck, maple bound RW FB 25" scale, 2 HBs and tremolo. #3 is for my son, he wants something LP-ish, so: Singlecut with LP contour, deep-carved flamed maple top on chambered mahogany body. Mahogany neck, maple bound RW FB Gibson scale, 2 HBs, TOM+tailpiece, and LP style control arrangement. What kind of a finish are you going for? It has been finished already, as a matter of fact I'm concluding the assembly and setup now. I do not have access to spraying equipment, so I needed someting wiped-on or in spray cans. I wanted some kind of oil-finish look. I considered the basic options like Danish Oil, and Shellac. But decided to go with Setch's advice and used Rustin's Plastic Coating, thinned down and wiped-on. It ended up really well. Here is a pic of the guitar after 3 coats of PC. The fretboard figuring really popped up when it had some finish on it !!! Same thing with the flamed neck. The staining and sanding really paid off. The glossiness of the finish was knocked down to matte with steel wool and brought back to satin with some energic dry cotton cloth rubbing/polishing. I really like the results, will post final pictures of this instrument soon. Edited November 19, 2007 by Blackdog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andronico Posted November 19, 2007 Report Share Posted November 19, 2007 BlackDog your guitar is fantastic !!! Congrats man ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Therioz Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 Gorgeous guitar mate, I am really liking that finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mors Phagist Posted July 5, 2010 Report Share Posted July 5, 2010 Final pictures soon? Its been 3 years! According to the Invision board timer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblaty Posted July 6, 2010 Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 Final pictures soon? Its been 3 years! According to the Invision board timer. If I can remember clearly, this guitar won a GOTM in 2007 Sorry if I´m wrong, but I believe I saw it finished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted July 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 Final pictures soon? Its been 3 years! According to the Invision board timer. If I can remember clearly, this guitar won a GOTM in 2007 Sorry if I´m wrong, but I believe I saw it finished I'm glad there's still some interest... Yes, the guitar was finished in late November 07, and presented in This Thread. Then, in February 09 it was reworked quite a bit, and it was again presented to this fine audience in This Other Thread. This first build never won GOTM (but Builds #5 and #6 did - see signature), but is a great playing guitar with an amazing resonance/ringing and the strat-on-steroids electronics make it very unique. I've evolved quite a bit with the builds, but I still love to play this one every time I take it out of the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblaty Posted July 6, 2010 Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 Oh now I remember... this is one of the guitars that will stay in your head forever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.